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God, and the absolute dependence of all creation on His will. One of the 
most instructive documents is the text of the XYIIth chapter of the Egyptian 
Ritual, published by Lepsius, in the Aelteste Texte, &e. It shows that at a 
very early age, far before the Mosaic period, interpretations were already 
common, each obscuring and corrupting the original text, which was purely 
monotheistic. Comparing the text, as it stands in that work, with all later 
texts, e.g. He Rouge’s, and Lepsius in the Todtenbuch, it becomes self- 
evident that the later the text the wider is the departure from the original truth, 
the wilder and grosser are the superstitions engrafted upon it. For my own 
part, I wish very much that the believers in the Bible record would confine 
themselves, for the present at least, to the establishment of this fundamental 
truth. You are aware that Egyptologists of high reputation shrink from the 
admission which contravenes the dominant notion of evolution. I do not like 
to enter on the further question touching the identity of the Horus myth with 
an original revelation. It would require more time, and far more learning and 
ability than I pretend to, to go through the literature, and to discriminate 
between what is really ancient and what is partly derived from, or influenced 
by, speculations of the Alexandrian school, or the predecessors of that school 
in Egypt. I believe, indeed, that, together with the primeval revelation of 
God to man, intimations, or rather germinal truths, were given, which were to 
receive their explanation and development after the Incarnation. Helitzsch, 
in his Apologetik, takes the doctrine of the Trinity as lying at the basis of 
all known religions. I do not, however, like the course indicated in the lec- 
ture. It seems to me, not indeed to go too far, but to move in a direction 
which few will follow with real profit, which, as some writers have already 
shown, may issue in a temporary but very serious embarrassment to Christian 
inquirers. I remember, in Miss Martineau’s Egyptian Travels, an attempt, 
not original, but skilfully made, to represent Christian doctrines touching the 
Saviour as embodiments of ancient myths underlying the Egyptian system. 
If I could see my way to go into this subject, I would have asked for more 
time. As it is I send this short, very unsatisfactory answer. 
MONSIEUR ALEXANDRE LOMBARD. 
A Letter to the Editor. 
Vous avez bien voulu me demander de mettre par ccrit les sujets sur les- 
quels j’ai eu le plaisir de m’entretenir avec vous. Malgre mon insuffisance, 
jc vais essayer de le faire, et pour les deux objets suivants. 
1°. Les traditions relatives au principe du mal figure par le serpent. 
2°. L’ecole des prophetes de Chaldee. 
Quant au premier point, n’est-il pas frappant de trouver dans les divers 
mythes de l’anti quite le principe du mal toujours car actorish par lc serpent P 
Tandis que les uns, pour se rendre favorable l’cnnemi dc Plmmauitc, lui 
